Little Su 7-31

I fished this afternoon with two clients. They caught one silver and hooked several other salmon on fly rods. We changed over to spinning rods and caught four other silvers and again hooked several other salmon. I visited with several other guides and they noted the fishing was getting better but still hit and miss. The afternoon fishing has not been as productive as the morning, but I expect this to change very soon. The fishing is improving daily and the water has come up as a result of the recent rain fall. With the rise in water the clarity has decreased as well. I would expect this to improve the fishing as the fish will hold in the holes and be less skiddish than when the water is clear.

Little Su 7-29

I did not fish today but did visit with another guide that fished the morning. They caught their limit of silver salmon as did several of the other guides. The river rmains very low and the boat traffic is heavy. This creates dirty water conditions as well as difficult boating conditions. Giving your neighbors space and slowing down seem to be in order for the foreseeable future.

Little Su 7-26

I fished with three clients yesterday in the am. We caught 4 very fresh chum salmon and one sockeye. We had a couple of silvers on as well as numerous other salmon that I was not able to identify but lost them. We are getting 15 to 20 good bites in a six hour trip. There are still large numbers of sockeye and chums in the lower river as they are the predominant catch according to the ADF&G kreel survey. The silver numbers are still a bit low but it is still early in the season. The water remains low and dirty due to increasing boat traffic. I would expect the silver fishing to pick up significantly early next week.

Little Su 7-25

I fished this morning with four clients. We had over 20 bites but landed one silver one pink and 5 chums. I noticed that the chums had net scars on them. I would speculate the lack of silvers today was due to commercial fishing activites. I visited with another guide and he had the same report. There are fish in the river but the run has not yet reached a peak, it is getting better each day. It may require patients and time to wade through the chums in order to catch the silvers.

Little Su 7-21

I visited with another guide today, he took out two clients I sent his way while I was on vacation. The fishing is very slow on the little su. Two clients caught two silvers in 6 hours of fishing. The water is very low, the record low was 1996 with 168 cubic ft. Today it was 234 cubic ft with the 59 year average being 430 cubic ft on this date. The water is clear and the holes are shallow. If you gou out use extreme caution.

Little Su 7-10

I fished two guests this afternoon for a last king trip of the season. We had as couple of bites and landed two fish that were very red. The fish were in the mid to high 20 lb range. We also landed the first Silver salmon of the season, a nice dime bright 8 lb fish. The silvers will be in the river in significant numbers very soon. We saw eagles and a beaver on the river, the water is very low and it will be difficult to navigate if it drops much more.

Pike Fishing 7-9 & 7-10

I took two guests for an overnight pike trip. We landed well over 100 fish with 10 fish that weighed between 10 and 12 pounds. The pike are very healthy and were their normal aggressive self. It was a great trip, the weather was good and the water conditions were perfect. We saw a 50+ inch bill moose, a fork horn moose swimming the river, eagles, beaver, a family of ermine and lots of ducks.

Lake Creek 7-7

Ron told me that the fishing had slowed on Lake Creek but has began to pick up again. There are fish being caught by both guides and private fisherman. Ron told me that Scott at Macdougal Lodge reported that they had five boats out yesterday and every boat had landed fish. He did not have an exact count so I am not sure if they were limiting out or catching one fish per boat. Lake Creek and the Tal are generaly the last good fishing spots of the season, I am headed that way Monday for one last Pike/ King trip before Silver season.

Deshka 7-7

I Talked with Ron and he reported the fishing on the Deshka was slow. There has not been more than 350 fish through the weir daily between June 30th and the July 5th. The fish that are being caught have started to turn with a few only slightly red fish scattered about. It looks like the Deshka is about done for the year as well as the rest of the lower Susitna river tributaries.

Clear Creek 7-7

I talked with Don at Mahays Riverboat service and he said the fishing on Clear Creek is winding down. This week it was good, I have been told that is normal for the fourth of July. He said they are still catching fish but they are starting to turn. I would assume that this means you can catch kings for the next 6 days but the likelyhood of landing one to eat becomes less each day. He had no reports on Rinbow fishing at this time.

Little Su 7-6

I talked with another guide that fished the Little Su today with 2 clients. He put on some miles and caught two fish over 40 lbs. He said they were red but the clients were happy with the fish. The water has come up some due to the rain but will likely come down as a high system comes in. He said the water remains clear and the fish are easily spooked. There were no reports of silvers being caught when he had left this morning.

Deshka 7-4

I visited with Ron and he said the fishing was still pretty good on the Deshka. The river has come up some and the fish are moving through the weir in small numbers. He reported the guys going above and just below the weir were catching their fish. It was taking some time and the numbers of fish in the holes were not as numerous as they were earlier last week. He had not heard of any silvers being caught yet but said he was not looking for those quite yet. I sounds like the majority of the fish are moving up stream but I was not able to reach Heather to see how their guides were doing at the mouth of the river.

Little Su 7-2

I fished the Little Su with my wife, another guide, his wife and their son. We fished for about four hours and landed 2 fish. We missed a couple of bites, likely jet planer bites. The kings were very red, to the point I questioned if they were suitable to eat. Both of the fish were in the low 20 pound range. We moved around looking for schools of fish to target and we did not see them in the numbers I had just previously observed two days ago. There were small schools of three to five fish in most of the holes but the larger holes did not hold the larger groups like we expected. It appears that the fish on the lower portions of the river are moving up to the spawning areas. We did note that there were fish absent from some of the normal lower river spawning beds, one explanation for this is that the fish are not stopping at these spots or they may come in later. The water has come up slightly as a result of the rain the past couple of days but it still remains low. we saw a family of Merganzers and a cow moose in the river as we were coming back to the landing at noon. It appears that the King fishing on the lower river has a day or two left and will be effectively over for the year.

Lake Creek & Tal 7-1

I talked with Eric Johnson at Northwoods Lodge and he said the fishing at Lake Creek had slowed down a bit as the week wore on but is was still good. His clients are still catching their limits. He did note that the fish are still coming in and fresh bright Kings are still being caught. He did say that the run appeared to be a bit late and that fishing would be good until the end of the eseason. Eric also told me his son was on the Tal yesterday and the fishing was still a bit slow. It sounds like the fish are moving into the Tal and the fishing should become more consistant throughout the week.

Deshka 7-1

I visited with Heather at the Deshka Landing Lodge, 495-5873, and their guide did not fish today. She did say that two other guides she knew did fish and they each did realatively well. They reported the fishing was good but not great. One of these guides did however limit out with 8 fish. Heather was not sure about the other guide. It sounds to me that having four clients with 8 fish in a trip is a very good day for this season. She had not heard of any Silvers, Chums or Pinks being caught yet. She said she would have better info for me tomorrow.
The water levels appear to be stable and Ron told me he thought they would come up with the recent rain. There has not been a weir posting for yesterday or the day before but escapement has been met for the year.

Little Su 7-1

I fished the Little Su this morning with two guests. We caught two fish backtrolling spin-n-glo's in one hole. The fish were in the low to mis 20 lb range, one was in good condition and the other fish was pretty red. There were several other fisherman on the river but we had the first two through the fish & game survey station for the day at 9:30 am. I saw on other guide with clients and he had at least one fish in the boat when I passed him. Another guide had ventured down river and I am not sure how he did, he was not back when I got to the landing. It appears that not many fresh fish are coming in and that the fish we are catching are either holding in the holes or residing there unbtil they spawn. I would speculate that as the week wears on it will become increasingly difficult to catch these fish in the Little Su. It was wet and raining steadily as we fished, that may make the bite last longer than it has during previous days due to the lack of sun falling on shallow and clear water conditions.
Yesterday the first Silver Salmon of the season was reported being caught on the Little Su. It will likely be two weeks before we can expect any numbers of significance in the river but hearing about the first Silver of the season is exciting none the less.